On Forgiveness Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

I think from about the earliest times that I

can recall, when I heard this parable of our

Lord, my initial thought and reaction was pretty

much the same as it was when I read it this week.

And that is that... My first impulse on hearing

this parable is, oh, it's a story about generosity

and liberality. Because the one servant owed,

I looked it up once, I didn't even bother this

week. It's an incredibly different amount of

money, like $100 million compared to $10. I mean,

it's something as vast as that. And the $100

million debt, so to speak, was readily forgiven.

I thought, well, you know, that's a good lesson

for us in being generous and not stingy. But

then it comes to the very end of the parable

where our Lord tells us what the real meaning

is. So will your Heavenly Father do to you if

you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

So this is what's called... This is the literary

device that the evangelists so often have. They

tell a story or a parable, and then it comes

to a conclusion, the last verse, with Jesus explaining

it to us, as if, you know, we don't get the message

from the story itself. So it's one of forgiveness.

And our Lord so often, as we're all aware, speaks

about the importance of forgiveness. And this,

I think, has to be seen in the background of

that concept of forgiveness was very indistinct

in the Old Testament period. There was that attitude,

well, you know, love your friends, but your enemies,

those who dislike you, you know, you can... think

ill of them or say bad things, curse them, whatever

it might be. But our Lord over and over and over

again tells us to love our enemies, to forgive

others. And the particular aspect of our Lord's

request, indeed it's a command that we forgive

others. The phrase that's used in the final verse,

the pronouncement here, so my heavenly father

will do to you. Notice he doesn't say if you

don't forgive your brother, but if you don't

forgive your brother, what's that phrase? From

your heart. From your heart. That's probably

the hardest thing to do. There are different

levels of forgiveness. Of course, the one which

isn't forgiveness is just be right out and say,

no, I don't forgive you for that, and then just

walk away. Well, that obviously isn't forgiveness.

And another level is you could clench your teeth

and say, yeah, I forgive you. And, you know,

the words mean it, but the mind and the thoughts

don't mean it. And sometimes that's depending.

We all probably have done that. We say, well,

I'm going to say it even though I really don't

mean it from my heart. Then the next level would

be, I wish my mind would forgive as readily as

my words do. That's when it becomes more difficult.

It's not just with the words, but with our intentions,

our thoughts. to forgive others that i think

is the most difficult thing and i would say there's

even a further level beyond that and that's not

to hold grudges and more specifically not to

have preconceived notions so so often if someone

harms us and i think we're more we can more readily

forgive people who harm us than people who harm

our spouse or our children or our parents. I

think that's harder for us to do. But regardless

of who did what to whom, the notion of forgiveness

is there, clear cut. And not to do this grudgingly,

but to mean it as much as we can. And then also

not... I'd say not to hold preconceived notions

because if somebody can harm you and you say,

okay, I forgive them, but I still remember. I

can't get that out of my mind. I still remember.

We have to work on that and get rid of that.

I'll give you an example. Rather recently in

my own life, I heard about a longtime friend

who was having a celebration. And I thought,

eh, you know, he's not interested in me anymore.

So I'm not going to, you know, say anything.

I thought, eh, that's not the right attitude.

So I sent off a congratulatory email. to this

person. And I meant my words, but they weren't

wholeheartedly. You know what I mean? There's

a difference. And then our Lord taught me a lesson

because I received an email in return which was

very gracious and very cordial. And I thought,

boy, even at this stage in my life, I've got

a way to go. to follow our Lord's commandments

as unreservedly as possible. And not to hold

grudges or not even to have a peek in our hearts

about someone. And then even trying not to think

good things about other people as well. Instead

of have that image, you know, that person is

a loser. a knucklehead. I'll be nice to him,

but I don't like him. We have to try and erase

these kinds of thoughts from our mind. It's not

easy. Hey, I've been trying for 78 years, and

I still have a way to go. But that's what our

Lord wants when he asks us. Don't just forgive,

but forgive from your hearts. Amen.